r 
17 
2.  Food. — From  the  date  of  their  arrival  here,  the  birds  always 
fed  well,  preferring  raw  meat  to  anything,  and  not  being  inconve- 
nienced bv  it  being  several  days  old.  At  one  time  they  had  a 
plentiful  supply  of  elephant  meat,  which  kept  them  going  for  the 
best  part  of  a week.  They  also  ate  bananas  and  boiled  rice,  though 
not  with  the  same  avidity,  and  were  always  specially  fond  of  bath- 
ing in  the  pans  of  water  which  I had  placed  in  their  cages.  When 
first  they  were  introduced  to  the  caterpillars  of  the  Bee  Hawkmoth 
they  regarded  them  with  some  suspicion,  and  only  ate  one  or  two. 
In  a very  few  days  time  however,  the}  devoured  every  caterpillar, 
chrysalid,  and  moth,  that  they  could  get  hold  of.  Many  thousands 
of  these  insects  have  been  given  to  them  daily,  and  there  have 
never  been  any  left  over.  There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  there- 
fore that  a caterpillar  diet  is  quite  acceptable  to  them,  directly 
they  get  used  to  it.  Since  their  release,  they  have  flown  away 
to  the  coffee,  and  have  evidently  been  looking  for  food  there,  but 
I have  not  been  able  to  see  them  actually  catch  the  Bee  Hawk 
Moth  caterpillars,  though  they  very  assiduously  clean  the  plantain 
trees  of  the  caterpillars  which  roll  themselves  up  in  the  leaves  of 
this  plant.  It  seems  to  me,  that  the  utility  of  the  crows,  as  ene- 
mies to  the  coffee  caterpillar,  will  depend  largely  upon  the  num- 
bers of  the  birds  in  the  place,  and  the  consequent  scarcity  of  the 
food  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed  in  Ceylon,  that  is  to  say, 
the  refuse  in  the  vicinity  of  human  dwellings  It  is  only  natural 
that  they  should  prefer  such  food,  especially  as  it  is  more  easily 
procured.  It  was  only  when  the  caterpillars  appeared  in  very 
large  numbers,  that  the  crows  in  Ceylon  were  attracted  to  them, 
and  so  it  will  be  here,  in  all  probability.  But  there  is  always  the 
factor  with  our  importations,  that  they  will  have  got  to  recognise 
the  coffee  caterpillars  and  chrysalids,  as  palatable  articles  of  diet, 
before  they  get  their  freedom.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the 
crows  should  be  let  loose  amongst  coffee  trees  that  are  badly^ 
attacked  by  caterpillars,  and  which  have  been  previously  covered 
over  with  netting  to  prevent  the  birds  from  flying  awav.  I should 
have  given  this  a trial,  as  no  harm  could  result  from  letting  the 
birds  understand  where  the  caterpillars  are  to  be  found,  but  the 
present  consignment  is  such  a small  one  that  it  seemed  better  to 
leave  them  altogether,  and  not  separate  them,  as  I should  have 
been  obliged  to,  for  there  are  no  coffee  trees  close  by,  just  now. 
on  which  the  caterpillars  are  to  be  found  in  any  numbers.  So  I 
decided  to  leave  this  part  of  the  experiment  to  a future  occasion, 
when  we  get  in  a fresh  batch. 
3.  Breeding, — I am  satisfied  that  as  soon  as  the  crows  decide 
on  a suitable  spot,  they  will  begin  to  breed.  They  are  otten  to  be 
seen  flying  about  in  pairs  already,  though  I have  observed  no 
actual  attempt  to  commence  building  their  nests.  Whilst  the  last 
batch  were  still  in  their  cages,  it  was  evident  that  the  question  of 
mating  had  not  been  consigned  to  oblivion.  1 here  were  at  least 
two  pairs,  whose  attitude  towards  each  other  was  distinctly  sug- 
gestive of  something  more  than  ordinary  friendship,  and  I also 
noticed  that  one  of  the  caged  birds  had  an  obvious  preference  for 
